


One step at a time (and our paradise will be regrown anew)

by Koayyy



Category: Granblue Fantasy (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Basically two dads doing their best, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Azazel/Lucifer/Sandalphon, Memory Loss, Multi, One succeeding while the other not so much, Queerplatonic Relationships, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-29
Packaged: 2019-06-18 13:54:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15487287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Koayyy/pseuds/Koayyy
Summary: Lucifer is reborn as a small child, and it is up to Sandalphon and Azazel to take care of him. There are many bumps on the road, but it's okay. Everything will be all right, and in the process, the three regain what they've lost and more.





	One step at a time (and our paradise will be regrown anew)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jumyouboshi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jumyouboshi/gifts), [dreamelodies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamelodies/gifts).



> This took two months. TWO (2) MONTHS. Please don't expect the rest to be any faster I beg of you. 
> 
> Anyway yes I love AzaSan with all my heart and this is all based off [this glorious twitter moment](https://twitter.com/i/moments/1003496087296983040) by the lovely Ein and Cassi! Enjoy and yell at me if you want this to go any faster, because man,,, all the good bits are in chap 2 and 3

For once, Sandalphon doesn’t dream. He notices this fact only when he wakes up in a mess of limbs on a bed that logically, is too small to fit two people and a growing child. He’s aware of his leg against someone’s face and a familiar weight on his back, but he only registers it after he slowly pries his eyes open.

The sunlight shining in from the window finally allows him to understand what kind of position he is in. Lifting his head up, he turns to the side to see one of Azazel’s legs hanging off the mattress. Turning more to see what’s behind him, he’s greeted by a crack from his neck and Lucifer sleeping soundly on his back.

He’s the only one awake. Well this is just  _ great _ .

He manages to get his hands back with a few maneuvered pulls, but he can’t push his torso up in fear of pushing Lucifer off and waking him. He can’t even move the leg on Azazel’s face, with how it’s being treated as a hugging pillow.

He sighs and lays his chin on his folded hands. Well, it still seems to be early, judging from the noise level and the awake presences he can sense. Best to take his chance and snooze a few more minutes. He closes his eyes and lets his mind wonder. 

He honestly doesn’t know how it had come to this. One simple question from Djeeta had lead to such a chain of unexpected events…

 

* * *

 

 

“Hey, Sandalphon?” Djeeta calls out after she sips her coffee. It was during their coffee break, and Djeeta, Lyria, Gran, Vyrn, and Sandalphon himself  were all enjoying their respective coffee at a table.

“What?” Sandalphon snaps himself out of his thoughts and urges her to go on. The rest at the table are also paying their attention at her.

“Are any of your Supreme Primarch powers back yet?” she asks, looking at him in concern. Oh, she’s worried again.

“Not really. I doubt a few months is enough for it to fully recover,” he says, takes one of the snacks on the plate in the middle and throws it into his mouth. He has to admit that these cookies are good alongside coffee.  

“Not even a little bit?” Vyrn prods as he sits himself onto the table beside Gran’s cup. Gran seems to be listening intently.

Sandalphon opens his mouth then closes it. He can either lie and say that it hasn’t come back at all, or tell them and probably drag them into his problems. Unfortunately, Lyria sees through him almost immediately.

“Sandalphon? Is something bothering you?” Lyria sets her cup down and stares intently at him. The invitation to speak has presented itself to him, and maybe if it was himself from a few months ago, he would brush their concern off. But things have happened, and he can admit to himself in his head that he’s gotten a bit more soft.

He chooses to take the plunge.

“The Supreme Primarch’s power is recovering, but I can’t stop feeling as if something is… slowing down it’s recovery,” he admits and quickly takes another sip of his coffee to avoid their gazes for the meantime.

“Slowing it down? How so?” Gran speaks for the first time this session. He can tell the Singularity still dislikes him and merely tolerates his existence because of his twin sister, but he comments nothing on that matter and instead tries to answer his question.

“It’s as if…” He pauses to think of a more simple way to explain that lets him avoid speaking about the more unpleasant experiments he went through. “As if you remember you filled half of your cup of coffee, but when you go to take a sip from it, it’s empty.” 

A moment of silence passes as everyone at the table processes his words, then a pair of hands slamming onto the table and the sound of a chair scraping against the floor breaks it in the most ungraceful way he’s ever witnessed.

“How long has this been going on for?” Djeeta asks-, no, she  _ demands _ as she gives him a look that he hasn’t seen in a while.

“A few weeks at most,” he says without losing his composure. She seems to calm down as the look she gave disappears, and she sits back down.

“Can you pinpoint where the power is going?” Gran asks after placing a hand on Djeeta’s shoulder. Sandalphon places his cup down onto the table in thought.

“I have a vague sense of where it seems to be going, but how far away it is...” He says as he closes his eyes. The ship is flying South now, but the Supreme Primarch’s power seems to be flowing to the Northeast. He doesn’t remember exactly what the map looks like, but he honestly doubts there’s any islands in that direction. He opens his eyes again.

“We’re going to talk to Rackam and the rest after this,” Djeeta declares and roughly takes a bite out of an innocent cookie. Lyria glances at her then looks over to him again.

“Is it going to someone… bad?” Lyria asks, putting her full attention on him.

“I don’t… think so,” he says, then pauses for a moment to choose his words. “I was planning to fly out to check, but…” 

“We’re going with you. That’s final,” Djeeta says as she gives him a ‘rely on us for once’ look. He ignores it and sighs. It’s impossible to talk the twins out when they’ve made up their minds on something. Time to just accept his fate.

And accept his fate he did. As the Grandcypher turns around and heads straight in the direction of whatever unknown awaits them. Sandalphon stands on the deck of the ship, leaning against a railing as he stared into the endless skies in front of him. 

An unexpected primal shows himself and approaches him. He stops near the railing a distance away, enough so that they couldn’t reach each other if they tried. A wise move.

“What are you here for?” Sandalphon asks without batting an eye. 

“The ship changed course for you, is it wrong for me to be curious as to why?” the primal replies, keeping his eyes on Sandalphon.

Sandalphon finally turns his head to meet the pale fallen angel’s gaze. Azazel seems curious at best and scornful at worst. He answers him with a flat look that slightly betrays his dislike for him.

When Sandalphon had boarded the ship for the first time and met Azazel, a fight broke out that resulted in a large hole in the side of the Grandcypher. The ship was immediately taken to Golonzo Island to undergo repairs, and after a shouting contest, Azazel had been forced to explain what he truly was, and everything else came along with it. 

They had a few arguments, and Djeeta was tempted and almost forced them into the ‘crew member get-along shirt’. Fortunately for them, Gran had stopped her and instead shoved the two into a room and locked it.

“Talk it out, or it’s the get-along shirt!” Gran had said before footsteps faded into the distance. How did the fifteen year old singularities successfully managed to shove a primarch and a fallen angel into the kitchen was anyone’s guess. 

(Both of them were led by the twins separately. Djeeta asked for two cups of coffee and excused herself without even touching the cup, asking for Sandalphon to wait. And like the fool he was, he waited. The next thing he knew, Azazel was shoved into the kitchen and the door was locked.)

Of course, both of them knew that they could break the door down without lifting two of their hands, but well. He really didn’t know what had came over him that day. Maybe it was because he used the coffee beans from the tree Lucifer had made, or maybe it was the way the cloudy sky had blocked out the sun and reminded him of a particular day in the labs. It didn’t matter, in the long run.

They had sat at the kitchen table with cups of coffee, and they had been civil for once. 

(“I was by his side, but I never had a purpose,” Sandalphon had said, looking into the coffee in his cup and refusing to make eye contact under any costs. Silence stretches again, but this particular time, it doesn’t last long.

“I had a purpose, to be a fighter, but his shadow was far too great,” Azazel had said, his left hand absently rubbing the black claws on his right. 

They didn’t really come to an understanding at that time, but knowing each other’s circumstances was certainly a start.)

A few missions together later, and here they are. Sandalphon still dislikes him, but has a lot of crew members to dislike, so it really means nothing at this point. Azazel pointedly ignores his flat look and gives a look that Sandalphon can’t identify.

“So, what’s going on?” Azazel asks as he places his left hand on the railing. His concern seems genuine enough.

“Something’s happening to the Supreme Primarch’s powers, so we’re going to find out what exactly it is,” Sandalphon says, then quickly adds: “Djeeta’s words.”

“Has the team been decided?” Azazel asks, shooting up in alertness. Sandalphon remains calm.

“I don’t know, go ask one of the Singularities,” he replies and turns his gaze back to watching the blue sky. He lets a moment of silence pass, but Azazel doesn’t seem to be moving any time soon, so he opens his mouth to let something slightly buried inside of him to slip. 

“I’m surprised you’re worried for the current Supreme Primarch,” he says, aware that he’s risking bearing his heart out to the fallen angel. He turns and avoids Azazel’s gaze by staring at his long and sharp painted nails.

“Hmph, I may not acknowledge the current Supreme Primarch, but everything would crumble if something happened to him. That’s all,” Azazel quickly said, retrieving his hand from the railing and starting to walk away. Sandalphon didn’t stop him, and before long, he feels him meeting Gran below decks. 

The anxiety of not knowing what to expect in the coming days starts to eat at him, one small piece at a time.

 

* * *

With him being on the deck of the ship so much, Sandalphon is the first one to see the small, floating temple made of marble, hidden behind a few clouds. He is tempted to fly over and check it out himself, but he knows that if he does, if the thing in the temple doesn’t kill him, the twins will. So for the next few days as they approach the temple, he stays on deck and stares at it. Trying to see if he can get a hint as to whatever is in there.

His body is practically buzzing with anxiety by the time the Grandcypher stops itself beside the small cape of the island. He’s the first one off the ship, and the twins, Lyria, Vyrn, and Azazel follow him. Azazel’s perfectly fine, but the rest seem to be struggling to catch up with his pace.

The temple is completely silent except for their footsteps, Sandalphon’s heels echoing the loudest as he picks up the pace. It’s hard to notice anything else when the presence feels so close and so familiar, but he doesn’t get his hopes up in fear of crushing disappointment. He’ll believe it when he sees it with his own eyes.

He abruptly stops in front of the large, grand door. Lyria lets out a squeak as she crashes into Djeeta’s back. Azazel has been unusually silent, and it puts him even more on edge. He reaches out to the open the door but he hesitates, his hand floating inches from the handle.

Djeeta seems to understand his feelings as she speaks up.

“We’ll wait out here. Yell for us if you need us,” she says, then holds Lyria’s shoulder as she steers her in the other direction. Gran gives him a nod and follows them. Both Vyrn and Lyria turn to look at him before obediently walking away. Azazel is the only one that hasn’t moved a muscle.

“Azazel-,” he starts as he retracts his hand, but of course, he’s cut off.

“Be careful,” Azazel forces out of his gritted teeth. It takes him another moment, but eventually he walks away from the door and towards where the Singularities are. Sandalphon can’t stop the little smirk from his lips, but he drops it as he turns fully to the door.

He gives it one last look as he steels his heart, and pushes the doors open. He sees what’s in the middle of the room, and he ignores the open door as he rushes to it without another thought.

In front of him, sitting peacefully on a pedestal, is a floating, glowing cocoon. It looks untouched, as if it came into existence just yesterday. The glass on the roof of the room lets the sunshine through, bathing the room in a calm, soothing aura. The air feels stuffy and uncomfortable, but Sandalphon still sucks in a large breath at the sight.

He slowly takes another step closer, a part of him afraid that he would do something that shatters the image like an illusion. For once in his at least two thousand years of life, he’s afraid of the amount of power he holds as a primarch. But instead he takes another step, and instinctively stretches his hand towards it.

He feels the soft feathers between his fingers, and the Supreme Primarch’s power suddenly surges through his core, materializing on his back by themselves. He moves his hand and caresses the cocoon, while the Supreme Primarch’s power pours itself into the cocoon like freshly made coffee being poured into a delicate cup.

He knows who’s in it. He can feel his tears bubbling up to the surface, ready to burst forward and overwhelm him, but he quickly stops himself from crying when the cocoon starts to unfurl itself feather by feather.

He isn’t ready, and almost takes a step back, but his eyes are glued to the cocoon as a child with familiar white hair reveals himself. The child opens his eyes, and Sandalphon stares into the color of the sky.

The child looks sleepy, but widens his eyes at the sight of Sandalphon.

For a small moment, it was silent as they stared at each other. There’s nothing else in the room, but Sandalphon can hear a metaphorical clock ticking in the background. He almost chokes on a sob, but he gathers himself to speak. In the words he had heard when he was first born into existence.

“It is nice to meet you. I’m Sandalphon,” he says as gently as he can without breaking into tears. The child opens his mouth.

“Sandarufon…” The child says, as if testing his name on his tongue. A smile comes naturally onto Sandalphon’s face, and he nods.

“What’s your name?” he asks as he offers a hand. The child takes it without hesitance and takes his first steps out of the cocoon. Thankfully, the child is dressed in a simple white robe. 

His eyes drift to the child’s back, and two too small and pure white wings twitch in response. 

“I- My name is Lucifer,” the child-  _ Lucifer _ says timidly. No, not yet. He tells himself, you have to hold yourself together. 

He’ll cry when the day is over, when he’s alone in his room without anyone to witness him break into pieces.

“Luci-, Lucifer.” Sandalphon has to correct himself before he automatically added the honorific. Lucifer perks his head up at the call of his name. 

“What… do you remember anything else?” he says, unreluctantly letting his grip on Lucifer’s too small hand go. But his feelings seem to be returned when he feels three of his fingers being taken into a small grip. He doesn’t pull away, so Lucifer seems to take it as permission. 

“I… only know my name. I’m sorry, Sandalphon-sama,” Lucifer says, barely louder than a whisper with a tone of guilt and genuine sorry. But the honorific only feels like a slap to the face, as if this entire situation wouldn’t have happened if he-

He cuts his own thoughts off by talking.

“There’s no need for the -sama, Lucifer,” Sandalphon says, still gently as he turns to look at the open door. The rest are just a corridor away. 

“Y-yes, Sandalphon,” Lucifer says, in a tone too stiff to get used to. Sandalphon lets a breath of air escape his mouth and turns to give his full attention to Lucifer.

“You know who I am, but there’s no need to address me like that,” he starts. “I am not your superior. I want you to think of me as a… guardian.” he has to take time to try and find the right word, but even ‘guardian’ doesn’t sound right. He throws the issue to the back of his head for now.

“O-, okay!” Lucifer says, perking up in mood with a bounce. Sandalphon returns the grip on his hand and starts for the door. He has to slow his pace for Lucifer to keep up, but it proves to be too slow for his liking.

He stops and turns fully to Lucifer, crouching down to his height with his arms in the air. He’s not sure what he’s trying to do, but it seems as if Lucifer is confused too.

“Um…?” Lucifer says, confusion evident in the tilt of his head.

“You walk too slow. So I’d thought maybe I can…” Sandalphon trails off, but Lucifer seems to understand. He looks at Sandalphon with a gaze that communicates both excitement and a question of permission. Sandalphon gives a nod, and Lucifer practically dives into his arms, his small hands joining at the back of Sandalphon’s neck. Sandalphon lifts Lucifer’s bottom and stands up, adjusting a little to let Lucifer’s weight sit on only one of his arms.

Lucifer is so light.

Sandalphon walks out the door and stops right before the turn. His mind keeps drifting back to how wrong the entire situation felt. Lucifer is so small and light in his arms, not the perfect Supreme Primarch he used to be. Now, the dutiless angel is the Supreme Primarch, and the young angel in his arms is the one without a duty. 

Before his thoughts can go any further, a small hand lands on his cheek. 

“Sandalphon?” Lucifer says his name so quietly, as if afraid of going any louder. They’re going to have to fix that. Going to. Someday.

They have time.

“It’s nothing,” he whispers, as if any louder and something would break. He takes a breath and rounds the corner, focusing on approaching the group at the far end of the corridor. When he’s spotted, their expressions change. Sandalphon spares a glance at Lucifer, ready to stop if this proves to be too many people for the new (“new”) angel.

Lucifer looks nervous, but curious at the same time. It’s evident that he has the mentality of a child. 

He stops in front of the group, with enough room to put Lucifer down if necessary. Lyria’s eyes are sparkling while the Singularities and Vyrn are still in shock. Azazel is…

Azazel’s expression is new, and he doesn’t know what to really make of it. It’s as if Azazel was experiencing the strongest hope and the strongest shock simultaneously, and the two conflicting emotions are battling each other to show on his face. Sandalphon can’t bear to look at him in the eye as he opens his mouth to speak.

“This is Lucifer... a newly born angel.” 

 

* * *

“May I have a moment with you in private,  _ Supreme Primarch _ ?” Azazel says, aware that he is addressing Sandalphon as the Supreme Primarch for the first time. It has the intended effect as Sandalphon flinches. Even Lyria stops from playing those hand clapping games -made for children- with Lucifer, but Lucifer seems ignorant to this rare occurrence as he just looks over curiously. 

It takes a moment for Sandalphon to compose himself, even Azazel can tell with the way his shoulders move.

“Keep an eye on him, Lyria. I’ll be right back,” Sandalphon says to the two smaller forms sitting on the floor. The twins left a while ago to tell the other members of the new(?) addition to the crew, so Lyria was the only one left to take care of Lucifer.

It’s still so strange to see Lucifer as this small child, and not that tall, sacred pillar that led the angels with pride.

Lucifer grasps Sandalphon’s hand before he can stand up. Azazel doesn’t know what look Sandalphon gives him, but he obediently lets go after a moment. Sandalphon stands up and walks over to follow Azazel. He doesn’t turn to look as he leads him to the one of the corridors of the more quiet side of the ship.

The better choice would be to start the conversation with another topic before getting to what he wanted to demand, but Azazel isn’t known to make good choices like that. So instead, he pins Sandalphon to the wooden wall with his claws, letting it land right beside Sandalphon’s head with an incredibly loud thud.

Sandalphon doesn’t seem fazed as he glares at him, but then again, if he was fazed by something like this, then Azazel would almost be concerned. He gets right to what he wants to say. Stalling wouldn’t do any of them good.

“I’m taking care of Lucifer,” he declares, pinning his fierce glare on Sandalphon. As expected, Sandalphon doesn’t back off one bit.

“As if I would leave Lucifer in  _ your _ tainted hands,” he says, leveling him with a glare with the same intensity. On one hand, Azazel can understand why he wouldn’t trust him with taking care of Lucifer since he was weak enough to fall to such an underhanded power. 

But on the other hand, no one insults him so easily and gets away with it.

“And you think you’ll do a better job?” he retorts with a smirk on his face, feeling a pang of satisfaction when Sandalphon’s expression faltered. Unfortunately, it only lasts for a second.

“Better than you? Certainly,” Sandalphon says, taking a step forward with an aura that causes Azazel to take a step back without thought. Well, if he’s so up for a challenge…

“Then, how about we see who’s better at taking care of Lucifer?” he suggests, raising his claw to observe them. He’s going to have be more careful with this hand, unless he can find some kind of cover that won’t be ripped to shreds by how sharp they are.

“Are you suggesting a competition, with Lucifer as the prize?” Sandalphon says slowly, his voice dripping anger enough that even Azazel’s warning bells were sounding.

“No, I’m suggesting a challenge,” Azazel starts. “with Lucifer as the judge. Whoever he chooses will stay by his side and the other will have to  _ back off _ .” the last two words hang on a borderline growl. 

Sandalphon takes a moment to suck in a breath, then exhales before speaking again.

“Fine,” he says begrudgingly. “ I’ll  show you how to take proper care of Lucifer.” 

“As the mortals say, we’ll see who gets the last laugh in the end,” Azazel says, letting the smirk float up to the surface.

“Oh, we'll see.” 

 

* * *

Sandalphon tucks himself into bed and cries, cries, and cries. Finally alone in the middle of night while everyone is asleep, he lets himself be taken by the waves and drown in his overwhelming feelings. He had been trying his hardest for the whole day to keep it all away, and now that he’s finally alone, it’s not surprising that his feelings come crashing down on him like a tidal wave.

He cries until he has no tears left and wraps the blanket tighter against himself in his exhaustion. His eyelids are heavy and his face felt horrible, but he can’t go to sleep. He doesn’t know what he’ll do if he experiences the nightmares again while the young Lucifer is on the ship.

And so after a long moment of contemplation, he forces himself to push the blanket aside and get into half-decent clothes and heels. It almost takes all the energy he has left in him, but he’s already started it, might as well finish it.

He makes his way to the kitchen purely on autopilot. He chooses the only activity that can let him forget everything for a while, and goes straight for the coffee grounds he kept handy for when he’s too tired. He stares into the water while it boils, putting all his attention to pouring properly, and finally leaning his exhausted body against the counter while he watches the coffee drip one by one into the jug.

The coffee forms at the edge of the filter paper, then when it has accumulated enough mass, it drops into the bottom of the jug to join the rest of the liquid. This process repeats, repeats, repeats…

When the coffee has finally finished dripping, his previous full attention placed on it scatters, and he finally realizes of another presence in the room.

He turns his head to see Djeeta rummaging the refrigerator for something. She either doesn’t know he’s looking or doesn’t care as she only turns his way after getting a carton of milk in her hands. 

She nods to him and goes to boil her milk with an empty cup ready beside her.

He pours his coffee into a cup and keeps his distance from her, but as much as the silence is comforting, he feels the need to fill it.

“Djeeta,” he calls for her attention, and she turns to look at him with tired but patient eyes. He opens his mouth to say something, but can’t find the words and closes it, biting on his lip instead.

She takes a quick glance at her boiling milk and changes the intensity of the fire before turning her gaze back to him. He can tell by the look on her face that she doesn’t intend to say anything until he continues.

By the time he tries again, she already has her cup of hot milk done and the steel bowl filled with water in the sink.

“I… I don’t know what to do,” he sets the cup of coffee on the counter and stares into the brown liquid as he speaks, “Lucifer needs a caretaker while he’s like this, and Azazel has already challenged me into seeing who can do it better, and I’m sure Azazel will do a better job from what is seen when he’s with the younger members like Yaia, but I don’t know if leaving Lucifer completely to him is a good choice either since he gets assignments a lot, but I-”

Djeeta snaps her fingers to catch his attention. He turns and she raises a palm as a sign for him to pause, and he swallows the rest of his words. She lets her palm fall to downwards and raises it up and down with her entire arm. He understands her signs and takes deep breaths according to how fast her hand moves. After he satisfies her with enough breaths, she pulls her hand back to hold her cup and nods for him to go on.

He takes an extra deep breath before going back to speaking.

“But I don’t think I can handle Lucifer any better myself, since I don’t have any sort of prior experience despite my two thousand years of living. There are other angels fit to caretaking and-” he cuts himself off to take another deep breath. 

“I… I don’t think I can stay with him for too long,” he says, putting his gaze on the little animal prints decorating her still steaming cup of hot milk. 

She takes a sip out of her cup and says in a hoarse voice, “Why?”

He looks up and makes eye contact.

“Why?” she says again, a hint of  _ something _ in her eyes as she looks at him.

He doesn’t know how to answer her and looks away. In the corner of his eye, he sees her slowly closing her eyes. She takes a deep breath and exhales the air in a swoosh. 

“Sandalphon,” she says in a smaller, gentle voice. He turns his gaze back to her and pauses at the unspoken but already repeated one word.

“I don’t deserve him. My inaction caused his death, I’m the reason why any of this is happening. I don’t- I can’t look at him when all I’m reminded that it’s my fault tha-!”  _ that he had his head cut off and his wings severed and died such a slow and painful death. It’s all because of him, if he hadn’t caused the cataclysms, if he wasn’t created in the first place, thenthisall- _

All he can hear is static, the wooden floorboards under him don’t exist, he’s drowning he’s falling-

“Sandalphon!” Djeeta’s shout gets to him and he freezes. Her hands are firm on his shoulders, and the touch gives him something to focus on that’s not his empty core. 

Ah, he did it again.

“Breathe,” she whispers, worry clouding her eyes. He obeys completely, taking deep breaths until the static is gone and he feels like he can function again.

She gives him a little smile, at least.

“Do you want to-” 

“Yes,” he says, cutting her off without letting her finish. He knows what she’s going to ask anyway. It’ll be just like the other times they crashed in each other’s rooms. It’ll be the same, and the thought comforts him. Or, at least he won’t need to think about what he’ll do later.

She steers him out the kitchen and goes back in. Oh, his cup. Before he can go back for it she comes back and drags him to his room so he can change. When he’s done, she pushes him towards her room and they’re practically corpses when they finally settle down onto the bed. 

He scoots closer to her and closes his eyes when his hand is placed on where her heart is. Feeling each beat her human heart makes gives him a sense of comfort, and he drifts into sleep with his face against the pillow. She’s probably the only other person he can sleep comfortably with. Or so he thinks, at this point in time.

 

* * *

“Azazel?” Lucifer speaks up softly from behind Azazel. Azazel had been stretching his wings, and at the sight of it, he had asked if he could touch them. Azazel had given him permission and now he’s behind Azazel, getting himself covered in his soft black wings. Azazel has always been nice to him and cared for him, so he doesn’t understand when the other crew members say that Azazel is scary. 

Honestly, Lucifer feels that Sandalphon was much more… not scary. But Sandalphon feels cold, like he’s trying his best to stay away from him, despite saying that he was going to be his guardian. The matter just confuses Lucifer the more he thinks about it, so he puts it aside to focus on other things.

(Lucifer will understand later that the word to describe Sandalphon’s behavior is ‘distant’. And he will understand much, much later the reason why.)

“What is it?” Azazel asks, turning back to take a look at him. It almost makes him stop combing through the black feathers, but he resumes when Azazel just gives him a look that tells him to go on with what he was saying. 

“My wings are too small, and the books always talk about the great blue sky, so… um…” He trails off, not sure how to put his request into words. He needs to read more if he can’t even communicate something as simple as this.

Thankfully, Azazel understands what he was trying to say.

“... you want to fly?” Azazel asks with a slight tilt of his head. The reaction makes him blink a few times, then nod.

“Flying on an airship is nice too, of course. But sometimes animals fly overhead and I can’t help but think…” he gets quieter as he goes on and turns to look at his own small white wings, moving them a bit as if testing them. He turns back to see Azazel staring at his small wings with an unreadable expression on his face. The expression only lasts for a little while and is replaced by an expression he sees often on the twins.

“Follow me,” Azazel says, standing up from the couch and turning towards the doorway. Lucifer obediently jumps down from the couch and follows Azazel out to the deck of the ship. The wind is very strong, and it almost threatens to blow him away. Before it does, Azazel scoops him up and lets him sit on his shoulders. The sudden change in balance makes Lucifer scramble to hold onto something. That something turns out to be Azazel’s curved horns. 

“You okay up there?” Azazel asks, tilting his head up a little to try and get a look as he holds the two small legs steady. His white hair ends up pressed against Lucifer’s stomach and Lucifer notes that his hair is as soft as his wings. 

“I’m okay!” he says while curling his two little hands around Azazel’s horns. He flaps his own wings a little when Azazel spreads his wings and takes off after jumping over the ship’s wooden railings. Lucifer felt scared and closed his eyes at first, but when it became more stable he opened them to see the blue sky as far as his eyes could see.

In a direction was a few smaller islands surrounding a larger island, but other than that group of islands, there was nothing else in the skies. The blue skies felt so… big. No matter where he looked it would be blue mixed with white fluffy clouds. 

He wonders if clouds were actually soft to touch, like Azazel’s wings and hair.

“The sky is beautiful…” he says in awe, leaning forward as if it would let him feel closer to the wonders of the sky. He can’t see it, but Azazel lets a small smile appear on his face.

“It is,” Azazel says and holds his legs tighter. Lucifer notices this quickly and shifts his focus accordingly.

“Azazel?” he asks, looking down to try and get a look at Azazel’s face. He ends up pressed to the back of Azazel’s head as he tries, only to see Azazel’s smile and hear his soft laughter.

“Lucifer,” Azazel starts, saying his name softly, “I will always be by your side. Don’t forget that, okay?” 

Lucifer blinks once, then nods enthusiastically as he replies, “Okay!” 

Azazel lets out a little huff and flaps his wings. “Shall we head back? It would be bad if the twins got worried and I would rather not give Sandalphon the chance to punch me.” 

If he was more honest with what he wanted, Lucifer would ask to stay longer. But he doesn’t want to worry anyone, so he chooses the option that was the opposite of his wishes. Plus, he would rather not see Sandalphon lash out at Azazel.

“Okay,” he says as he takes one last glance at his surroundings, burning the sight into the back of  his eyelids. Right as he was done, Azazel flies them back to the ship, landing on the deck of the ship gracefully. No one bats an eye as Azazel grabs Lucifer and places him back onto solid floorboards with a small tap.

Right as he turns to ask Azazel if he has anything to do, a shout interrupts him.

“There you are!” Vyrn shouts as he flies over, causing Azazel to take a step back. “Where have you been? Lyria got worried when she couldn’t sense you two!” 

“We’re fine-” Azazel starts, but is interrupted.

“It- it was my idea. I wanted to know how flying with wings felt like, so Azazel took me with him for a while,” Lucifer says, his hands balling into fists as he feels a sense of guilt at having caused trouble.

Lyria, who was about to ask Vyrn to stop shouting, walked over and placed her hand on top of Lucifer’s head. He remembers being taught that this is called a ‘head pat’, and the action gives him a wave of comfort.

“There’s nothing wrong with that, but make sure to tell us next time, okay?” Lyria says, moving her hand around on his head and messing his hair up in the process.

“O-okay,” he says as he nods. After Lyria takes her hand off of him and bounced over to Azazel, he turns to also go back to Azazel’s side when his eyes sweep the other people on the deck of the ship.

He sees Djeeta and Gran walking over, but he certainly doesn’t miss brown hair and red eyes standing a distance behind them. Sandalphon looks at him with a strange expression and the sound of his heels against the wood resound while he walks away with a sense of tense in his legs. 

Lucifer doesn’t try to stop him.


End file.
